Unpack that stuff

Well, well, the old lady let you move back in, did she? Time to unpack your bags, then.

In case you happen to be a Linux or Unix server, that might be a bit of an issue. Sure, we all know what to do with zip files in Windows - but what about them tar or gz files? No worries - Bubba to the Rescue.

Here's what you do:

To unpack a tar.gz file, you can use the tar command from the shell. Here's an example:

tar -xzf bubba.tar.gz

The result will be a new directory containing the files.

Of course, this was the way we did things back then in the old days. Nowadays, when you download the tar.gz from a web browser, a lot of times an unpacker will open - and you can just use that. But that's for whimps. Or Yankees. Or both.

For just .gz (.gzip)

In some cases the file is just a gzip format, not tar. Then you can use:

gunzip bubba.gz